Divide and Conquer
by Gandalf3213
Summary: Another fire. Another day. Another trap. Johnny and Ben are investigating a fire, and Reed and Susan are on the other side of town trying to prevent a building from collapsing. But the fun doesn't really start until they are brought to Doom.
1. Another Day

**I own nothing**

"What are you doing?"

Johnny whipped around and smiled at Susan, who had just walked in on his (was it his first or second?) breakfast. "Hey, what's up?"

Susan's eyes seemed to drill a hole into Johnny's head. "You know perfectly well what's up, you were supposed to help Reed and me find a house. Remember?"

Johnny pushed himself away from his sister. "Yeah, I remember." He had hoped he would find a way out of this, even though his sister had been talking about nothing else for weeks.

"Fine, you know what? Just stay. We'll find a house ourselves." Susan snatched the Real Estate section of the paper off the table and stormed out of the house.

"Morning Kid," Ben walked into the kitchen just as Susan was walking out. "Bye, Suzie!" he got a wave in return. "So what're you doing?"

Johnny opened his mouth to talk, then closed it again when he heard the door slam shut. Another try at getting some words out, and the telephone rang. The red one.

Yes, they had a red telephone for emergencies. Reed's idea. But can you say, "So Superman?"

Ben picked it up, and Johnny went to his room, pulling on his Fantastic Four outfit. He met Ben in the hall. "What is it?" he questioned, trying not to look too happy. He needed something to take his mind off of this new house.

"A fire on Fourty-Second Street. One of those old apartment buildings they were going to condemn in January. There's about a dozen people trapped." They were in the elevator now (Susan and Ben had enforced the elevator's structure, so Ben could get into it.) Ben ruffled Johnny's hair. "You're up, Flame Boy."

Johnny flattened his hair back out. Leave it to Ben to make him feel about fifteen years old again. "You think we need Reed and Su?"

Ben thought about it for a moment, "Nah, they wouldn't like it very much if we tore them away from their very important house searching. Plus it's Saturday. They might need to answer to another emergency."

Johnny nodded, taking off across the lobby, a couple of unfinished, seemingly un-important questions filling up his head. Like how the fire was started.

He didn't know that Doom had started the fire, or that he and Ben were walking into a trap, or that his sister and Reed were going to walk into another one a few hours later. If he did, he wouldn't have gone to the fire.

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	2. A Ring of Fire

**I own nothing**

The fire was huge.

For a second, Johnny could only stare at it in awe. Fire was a beautiful thing—he'd thought so even before he had received the power to control it. It arched and danced, putting on a show, it seemed, for him alone.

But fire also destroyed, tore apart homes and families, things that were supposed to stay strong forever.

Ben was already rushing into the burning building, Johnny darted in after. He knew the drill—Ben would help with the support, try to keep the building up until all the people were out. Johnny would help the firefighters.

Men crowded the stairs, moving both up and down. The people moving down carried people, women and children who were screaming and frightened. Most of them didn't seem to speak English.

Johnny wished he could fly right now, but if he could fly without becoming a ball of fire, he hadn't learned how to yet.

Most of the firefighters dispersed by the fifth floor. The building had eight. Johnny went all the way to the top, deciding to work down in case the top stories collapsed.

At the last door on the top floor, Johnny heard screaming. The door was covered with flames. Johnny walked through them, into a room that was slowly becoming a fireplace. The heat was almost unbearable...

Two children were in the room. Not kids, exactly, maybe ten or eleven years old. A boy and a girl. They screamed at him in Spanish, making Johnny wished he hadn't kept passing notes in Spanish 101.

Johnny held out his arms, deciding to carry the kids through the first door, then let them walk down the stairs.

They were too big. Johnny just couldn't carry all that weight anymore. "One at a time!" he said, franticly trying to remember the words in Spanish. "One—One at a—" it was no use, he just couldn't remember. It was so hot, his lungs were aching...

The boy pointed to the girl, then to himself. Johnny nodded, scooping up the girl and running through the flames. He pointed down the stairs but she shook her head. She would wait for her brother.

Johnny took a deep breath before running back through the flames. The boy stood in the only part of the room that wasn't completely covered with fire and even so his shirt was starting to smolder. Johnny scooped him up, trying to ignore his screaming lungs, and raced through the door just as the floor collapsed.

The boy jumped out of his arms, grabbed his sister, and went down the stairs much faster then Johnny could ever go. He just needed a couple of minutes to rest...

"Hey, keep moving!"

Johnny looked up into the face of a huge firefighter. The man lifted Johnny up, pointing down the stairs as Johnny had done for the kids. "One step at a time." He reminded Johnny.

The stairs were in flames. Johnny plunged through them, stumbling, almost falling to the bottom. The firefighter straightened him, caught him before the plunge.

Ben was at the bottom of the stairs, signaling to Johnny. He brought Johnny to one side, checking him over as the firefighter got out of the building. "You alright, Kid?" he asked.

Then the building fell.

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	3. Burried Ten Tons Under

**I own nothing**

Susan sighed, "And this one you don't like because...?" she was getting tired of this. oUt of the six houses they'd been to _that day_, Reed hadn't liked a single one.

"Not enough plugs. Where will all my equipment go?" Reed put his hand on the back of his neck, a habit that he had had since he was young. Things had to be **just right** for him to like a house. He knew he was being picky, but he couldn't help it.

When her cell phone went off, Susan felt like she just wanted to scream. She pressed the ON button and put it up to her ear. "Yes?" she hoped it wasn't Johnny. She'd be forced to hang up on him.

Reed noticed that Susan wasn't behind him anymore just as he was walking out the door. He put his head back in (while still standing in the same spot. Sometimes he used his powers without realizing it) and saw that she was still standing there with her cell phone looking less annoyed and more worried.

_Probably a problem somewhere_, he thought, not relishing the idea of going to save someone. Call him heartless, but he was just so put out by this house hunting business. AS soon as his wife got off the phone he asked, "What and where? And why didn't Johnny or Ben pick up?"

Susan was by him in an instant, and they took off running, not bothering to hail a cab. Susan obviously knew where she was going. "A building is collapsing a couple blocks away. Johnny and Ben got a call about a fire, apparently, and took off." Her eyebrows met in the middle. "I wish we had Ben. This is his thing."

Reed shrugged, then looked at Susan and kind of half-smiled. "Want to race?" he asked, hoping she'd say yes. He didn't care that about thirty people were looking at them.

She shoved him, "what are you, two?" then sped up, leaving Reed to catch up by extending his legs. They got to the building less then a minute later.

A brick apartment building had been hit by a huge truck. The already structurally unsound building had caved in, leaving most of the top floors leaning hazardously to one side.

Susan and Reed went through the door after snatching protective helmets from the nearest police officer. Reed snaked his arms through the pipes, pushing against them and wishing he had bulked up a little more. Susan worked on the side to keep it from toppling over.

Susan watched after person after person came down the stairs. This was really getting hard...she knew that her only job was to keep the building up until all the people were out, but even that task was difficult.

She watched the last man go through the door, a little girl clinging to her arm, crying. Her concentration lapsed as she momentarily thought _I hope the girl's alright_.

"Susan!"

Reed's warning came too late. When Susan remembered to put her force field back up, but it was already too late. She and Reed were buried beneath tons of brick.

**Yes, they are both trapped under buildings. There's a reason for that. You'll find out if you review.**


	4. Down but Nowhere Near Out

**I own it not.**

Ben felt as though he had been hit on the head with an eighteen wheeler, but even that amount of force didn't knock him out.

By pushing off a few dozen bits of rubble, Ben was able to look at his surroundings. He wasn't just inside the foundation, as he had first suspected, but inside an underground tunnel. He didn't know how far it went.

Ben dug around where he was buried until he was able to get out. He jumped to the ground from the rubble, wondering vaguely why there was a ceiling after the cave-in. But he let the matter go when he realized he had more pressing matters to worry about.

Johnny was no where to be seen in the rubble. Ben dug frantically for him, picking up boulders that ranged from ball-size to dog house size to the size of a small car. Finally, near the middle, he found his friend.

Johnny's body was broken and bruised, making Ben wish for a fleeting instant that he was like Doom ― made of metal. The thought was banished instantly when a small groan redirected his focus to Johnny.

Just to see that he was alive was enough for Ben. He pulled Johnny until he was standing upright, then let go only to watch as Johnny fell again.

"Shoot!" the word that came out of Johnny's mouth cracked and was turned into a fit of coughing. The man beat a hand against the rock, unknowingly setting the hand aflame.

Ben knelt down, worry etched all over his face, "What's wrong, kid? Your leg?" he hoped not. They needed to get out of here, and that meant walking.

Johnny's bruised hand enclosed his ankle, pressing on different points until he cried out in pain. "My ankle, but it's not broken." He looked over at his left arm, which dangled uselessly at his side, sticking out at a strange angle, "That, however..."

Ben pushed Johnny's sleeve up, ignoring his cry of pain, "Sorry Kid, I need this." He ripped the fabric, exposing the skin. "You dislocated it too. Want me to fix that?"

Johnny looked away, knowing that this was going to hurt, especially since it was broken too. "Go ahead."

Ben's fingers gingerly pressed on the skin, expertly securing it back in place in less then a second. After the initial searing pain ebbed, Johnny nodded his head, realizing that sweat was pouring down his face. "That's better, thanks." He waited as Ben wrapped up the broken bones and helped him to his feet.

Carefully, Johnny pressed down on the foot, letting his weight even out and trying to push away the pain that flooded his brain. "O-okay," he said, the pain making him stutter, "let's get out of here."

They both knew, or at least guessed who had brought them to this place. Doom had wanted to get even with them, and for a megalomaniac, nothing short of killing his enemies was enough.

But neither of them mentioned it to each other as they walked, hobbled, and stumbled through the dimly lit halls of Doom's torture chamber, knowing full well that they'd discuss it soon enough, when the time came to fight for their lives.

Again.

**In case you havn't noticed, I like Ben and Johnny the best. But I do try to be fair, so the next chapter will be Reed and Susan. And Doom. Anyways, review!**


	5. Surprises

**I own nothing**

Reed groaned, opening his eyes to see that he was buried beneath an impossible number of bricks and rocks. Not for the first time, he realized how lucky he was that his bones couldn't break.

Slowly, he started pushing against the rubble, trying desperately to ignore the pain in his head, which felt as though it had been his by a fast-moving train.

The laborious work seemed to take hours, though Reed guessed that it was closer to twenty minutes. By the time he was out, he was coughing up a storm from all the dust. That, of course, didn't help his head any.

"Susan!" he called after the last of the coughs subsided. When there was no answer, he called again, louder, 'Susan!"

A small sound near the base of the pile alerted him to his wife's location. He knelt down, getting ready to clear the rocks away. Suddenly, the rock in his hand got pushed away by an unseen force. Susan crawled out of the small hole she had made, looking unharmed, if a little dusty.

Together, the couple looked around the room they had fallen into. It was made of concrete, and Reed would have guessed it was part of the foundation if it hadn't been for the hallway leading out of the room.

He gestured to the passage, "What do you think? Should we try to get out?"

Susan shrugged, "Nothing better to do."

They started walking through the labyrinth of hallways, each dimly lit and identical. They had been walking for close to an hour when they entered a room filled with a mountain of rocks and bricks.

Susan groaned and slid to the ground. "Right back where we started!" she muttered darkly.

Reed didn't think so. He went over to the pile, walking around it until something caught his eye. "Sue!" he cried, bringing the young woman over there in a second. "Look at that!" he pointed to droplets of blood leading in a wobbling line away from the pile.

Susan didn't remember either of them having an open wound, and another quick look-over confirmed that. "So someone else is down here?" she questioned.

Reed pointed to the top of the pile where an enormous hole had been dug out by something incredibly strong. "Not just anyone. Ben and probably Johnny."

Susan had already started back towards the hallway, "Well let's go. They have to be in here somewhere." She started at a half-jog, new energy filling her at the thought of her friends being down in this pit as well.

"They are in here somewhere." A smooth voice called from the other and of the room. Doom entered from an unseen panel in the wall, his very presence making the room a little colder.

"And now that you arrived, the games can begin."

**Just review, 'kay?**


	6. Rules

**I own nothing**

Reed's face became dark as he spat out the name like it burned his tongue. "Doom."

The metallic mask twisted into a smile. "So you do remember me!" Like they could forget after he had terrorized them on their wedding day. "That's good. Now, like I said, the games are going to begin. In fact, they have already begun."

The room became black. No light shone from anywhere. It made Susan appreciate the fact that her brother could make light anywhere. If only he was here. Then the lights came back on. Everything was as it had been before, except there was no Doom.

"The rules are simple." Doom's voice boomed across the room. "Just find the door, go down the corridor, meet up with your teammates," a snicker interrupted his speech. "If they're still walking," Susan's stomach seemed to overturn. "And get out of here."

Susan could imagine Reed's eyebrow's coming together while his face became red. "What, you get tired of killing Doom?"

Another laugh, this one hollow and harsh. "I'd much rather play games. Death is so tedious...when it's not the friends who are doing the killing." Another laugh. Maniacs love laughter.

This time it was Susan's turn to become angry. "What are the rest of the rules, Doom?"

"It wasn't my fault you interrupted me." The sadistic man said, sounding like a child. "Yes, there are more rules. You have thirty minutes to get out. After that, one member of your little group will die." Susan could imagine his smile. "Shall we go from youngest to oldest?"

Susan trembled, wanting to lash out at the man.

"Every thirty minutes after that, another member will die." Reed said something under his breath. "What was that? I didn't quite hear you?" Doom was going to laugh again, Susan could feel it.

Reed spoke louder. "I said," he stated with exaggerated patience. "That you will probably have monsters waiting for us at every turn."

A laugh. Susan had expected it. "No, Reed, that wouldn't be interesting."

The lights went out. Blackness again. Deep and penetrating.

"I suggest you find your beloved Flame Boy first."

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	7. Players

**I own it not**

Before Susan's parents had died, they'd gone to a museum. There were exhibits about all kinds of things ― Ancient Civilizations, Weather, and Diseases. One of them was about life as a blind person. You crawled into this little tunnel and it was like a maze that you had to work your way through in total darkness. Johnny had gone with her and he, of course, loved it. She had started hyperventilating about halfway through it and started screaming a little while after that. She was seven, and since then, she had hated the dark.

Susan put her hand out, relieved when she found Reed. She desperately tried to keep her breathing under control. Reed held her close, asking her quietly. "You afraid of the dark?" he felt her nod and laughed. "Why do you like space so much?"

Susan shook her head. It was an irrational fear. There was nothing she could do to control it. "Let's get out of here. Now."

Again Reed laughed and, still holding her tightly, they made their way towards what they thought was the exit. A small light shown in front of Susan as Reed pressed a button on his watch. 2:47. "Let's hurry." He said to Susan, and started walking faster.

Susan hurried to keep up, her hand out to brush Reed's clothing. "You think Doom will keep his word? That it will just be dark, nothing else?"

Reed shrugged, realized that Susan couldn't possibly see him, and said "I don't know," before hitting a very solid wall at full speed.

Reed was dazed as he bounced off the metal. The crash would have broken any other man's nose, but his just re-formed. One of the perks of being a mutant. He moved a foot to his right, found an opening, and went through it, putting one hand out to test for walls.

"Let's hope Johnny's visible." He muttered, trying not to show his panic. They only had half and hour, and who knew how many miles of tunnels there were.

Susan had a different thought, one that she wouldn't voice for fear that it would make it more real. _Let's hope Johnny's alive_.

* * *

"Woah." Ben said, stopping mid-stride. Johnny slammed into him. It was dark. The lights that had illuminated the corridor had all gone out at once. "I don't think this is just a burnt out light bulb." He was suddenly aware of a pressure against his leg. He reached down until he could feel Johnny.

"Ouch!" the younger man protested, whacking the rock-hand out of the way. "That was my head!" he rubbed the top of his head furiously, knowing that there would be a bump.

"Sorry." Ben growled. "Kid, give us some light, huh?"

A ball of fire danced in Johnny's hand, casting eerie shadows over his face. "A little _more_, huh?"

Johnny's entire body glowed with light, except for his broken arm and ankle. The fire, which would have burned anyone else in such close quarters, only made Ben smile ruefully. "Okay now, you take the front." He watched as Johnny hobbled as quickly as he could past Ben. Ben sighed and picked him up, placing the burning body under his arm.

"Hey!" Johnny protested, his face screwed up with indignation. "Put me down, you big rock!" he beat his good hand uselessly against his giant arm.

"Sorry. You're gonna be the flashlight, boy."

Johnny sighed, going limp as he reluctantly burned on, watching the gray floor quickly pass by beneath Ben's huge strides.

**Reviews are nice. Really.**


	8. Checkmate

**I own nothing**

It was three o' five.

Reed slowed down from the break-neck pace they'd been taking to point this out. "Another ten minutes and Johnny's dead. If Doom keeps his word."

"He'll keep his word." Susan warned darkly. "He just likes killing."

Reed let out an uncharacteristic scream of frustration. "They're probably out by now. Johnny would have gotten then to the exit by now."

Susan put a hand on her husband's shoulder. "I'm sure Doom thought of that. You probably need all of us to find the way out. I bet they're running in circles just like us." She sighed, watching Reed's watch move up another minute. Her heart was pounding far faster then it should, making her feel light-headed. They needed a plan. Now.

A shout from behind them made Susan jump a foot in the air. She turned around before turning away again. The bright light at the end of the hall hurt her eyes after twenty minutes of absolute blackness, but that didn't matter much.

"Johnny!"

It was indeed her brother, being held by the hulking form of Ben. He seemed surprised to see Susan, which puzzled her for a moment before she remembered that he didn't know about "The Game."

"Reed? Suzie?" Ben's voice cut through her thoughts and brought her back to the present. "What's going on? What're you guys doing here? I thought you were looking for a house."

Susan started laughing hysterically. Was it possible that they had started off the day looking for a house? That seemed forever ago, a part of somebody else's life.

"Listen Ben, we haven't got much time." Reed's voice was low and terse. "We need to find a way out in ―" he checked his watch. "Seven minutes or Johnny's going to die!"

An intake of breath from Ben came a second before Johnny's cry, "how come _I'm_ the one who always has to die!"

"But why? How? Is the place going to cave in or something?" Ben didn't get it. Of course he didn't, Susan couldn't make sense of it herself and she'd been there.

"Later, Ben, please. We have to get out. It's _Doom_!"

Reed started running, with Susan and Ben on his heels. None knew where they were going, but Reed guessed that if they kept running they'd get somewhere.

"Why isn't Johnny running?" Susan's voice was even. Running didn't phase her mutated DNA. Another perk.

Silence for a second, then. "Kind of a long story. A fire, then a cave-in, next thing you know half a building's on top of us!" Johnny was holding something back, Susan could tell, but now wasn't the time to argue.

"Two minutes!"

The group ran faster, barreling through the seemingly endless hallways. Picking their paths on a moment's notice. Running towards an unseen finish line.

The lights came back up, making everyone, even Johnny, blink from the brightness of the everyday bulbs. A voice over the loudspeaker declared with apparent glee, "Time's up."

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	9. Pain

**I own nothing**

The group subconsciously moved in around Johnny, Susan moving over to step right in front of him. She looked down the long hall, watching for a flicker of movement, a giveaway to their attacker's position.

"Look for an escape route," she murmured to Ben, glancing over at Johnny who was keeping his face carefully blank. She felt a surge of pride for her brother much like the ones she would feel when watching him stand up to the school bully.

That's when the ceiling collapsed.

The group dived out of the way, becoming split up once again by a giant rock wall. Susan looked up, seeing sunlight streaming from the hole. She started to scramble up the huge rock face.

Johnny was on the other side with Ben. The same exit was opened on their half, yet between them and the sunlight was the metal body of Doom.

Ben pushed Johnny behind him letting out an inhuman growl. He'd wanted to kill this man for so long...

"Nice to see you Ben." Doom's sickly sweet voice held a touch of laughter. He was having _fun_. Ben moved forward a step.

Johnny had been eyeing the hole. He could fly out right now and be out of there. Doom would follow him, leaving Ben free to get out then they could face him together with Susan and Reed.

He acted then, letting his fire surge as he lifted off the ground flying right over Doom's head. He was out of the hole in an instant―

An unrelenting force pulled him back down, the grip putting his weakened bones through pure agony. It was a pain that he had never experienced. The entire world was blocked out, leaving him alone with the horrible sensation, the feeling that he would rather die then be put through one more second of this...a scream echoed in his head, louder then anything else.

Susan had just gotten to the top of the heap of rocks when she heard the scream. Looking down, she saw Doom holding her brother up with his electrical powers and laughing with delight as Ben charged at him.

Three things happened simultaneously then. Susan used a force field to put a barrier in the electrical current, making Johnny drop out of the air; two elastic hands descended from above Susan to catch him before he hit the floor and Ben hit Boom so hard the weight of the two bodies was enough to break through the barrier of rocks and cause another small avalanche.

Susan scrambled down to be next to her brother just as the rest of Reed's body caught up with his arms. She fell to her knees, feeling such a strong sense of déjà vu that the sensation was overwhelming. Johnny was unmoving, his body uninjured except for the scrapes and bruises he had suffered beforehand.

There, on the cold cement surface of the underground world Doom had created, Susan wept over the fire that fueled the Fantastic Four.

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	10. Death

**Yeah, so...I dont't own it. **

Ben held onto Doom until the rubber cage got there. Yes, it was made completely out of synthetic rubber and plastic. Doom couldn't break it apart.

He watched distractedly as Doom got taken away by the authorities for the ump-teenth time and wondered vaguely how long it would take him to get out of jail. He found that he really didn't care all that much at the moment.

Johnny Storm wasn't breathing. Johnny Storm was dead. Ben felt like he would like to hit a very large, hard something. At the same time he wanted to cry.

Paramedics were on him, of course. They had arrived within five minutes of Susan's frantic call. Ben didn't think it would be enough. But what would happen to him ― to the team ― if Johnny died? He didn't think he'd be able to do it anymore.

Fighting evil seems like the coolest profession in the world when you're eight. Battling monsters, saving cities, and having a cute girlfriend on the side doesn't look like the toughest thing in the world. Ben would do anything to change careers.

Reed was standing next to his wife, not sure quite what to say or how to act, tears flowing down his own cheeks. Susan buried her head in his chest as her brother was jolted with another wave of electricity.

Reed's eyes looked blindly at the chaos around him. Reporters...news crews...FBI...police...spectators...SWAT...kids...it didn't seem real. Like he was living in a dream. Or maybe it was a nightmare? The police were asking him questions, with the conversation running along these lines:

"Did you know about underground tunnels?"

"No."

"Do you know how you got into the tunnels?"

"No."

"Were you aware that Dr. Doom had broken out of jail?"

Blank stare.

"Sir?"

The scene swam in front of Reed's eyes as he thought about the Johnny. Johnny...the youngest member of their team. The one who had been so excited about their powers. The one who liked fighting "bad guys". The one who loved their life the most.

A wail from Susan made Reed look up sharply. The EMT's had stopped working on Johnny. Reed bowed his head down. Even they thought it was a lost cause.

A small, resounding 'bleep' in his ear. A familiar one. Where had he heard that before? There it was again. Reed looked up wildly, not even daring to believe it was true.

The heart monitor next to Johnny was showing large, spiky, green lines. A little slower and more erratic then Reed would have liked but that meant one thing.

Johnny was alive.

A loud whoop from behind Reed made him smile. He turned to see Ben, his rocky face split by a huge grin through the rivers of tears on his cheeks. "Hey Johnny, good to see you alive!"

Susan smiled a watery smile at her brother as he was loaded into the ambulance. It was good to be alive.

**I couldn't kill him. I was very close though.**

**Review. Please?**


	11. Life

**I don't own them. **

Ben hated the waiting room. It made him stand out more then usual, which is why he usually avoided public places entirely. It also made him remember several past hospital visits, not all of them turning out so well.

_Stop thinking like that!_ He ordered himself, leaning against the wall. He didn't trust the puny chairs that littered the room. _The kid's going to be fine. Then I'll kill him myself._

But he wasn't so sure. There had been the previous encounter with Doom just months ago which left Johnny barely alive, his entire physique altered. Now this so soon after...He admonished himself once again for thinking so negatively, which brought him back to square one.

Susan kept shooting anxious glances at the door, willing it to open. It had been over two hours since anyone had told them anything. She chewed on her fingernail, a habit she only referred to when under stress. She leaned against Reed who stroked her hair awkwardly, his mind a million miles away.

Before when Johnny had been hurt Reed had been "playing doctor". He had forgotten just how nerve-wracking the side lines could be. He had been trying to get through the doors for about an hour after they arrived, but with no luck.

"His DNA is different then yours!" Reed had exploded at the doctor who was leading him out of the room for the thousandth time. "Drugs that make you better can kill him!" At least he had gotten through to them about the penicillin. Last time it had been tried Johnny had had such a severe allergic reaction that he nearly slipped into a coma. Ben and Sue had the same reaction. After that, no more penicillin.

The doors finally swung open and a tired-looking doctor stepped out. He looked around at the group and gave them a small smile. "He's stable now, and resting. You can go see him now if you like. And he should be ready to go home in about three weeks."

The group rushed past him. Reed found himself thinking. _Three weeks? Yeah right!_ Another perk of genetically-altered DNA was that you didn't need even half the time to heal. Usually.

Susan gasped as she came into Johnny's room. It was filled with all kinds of machines, some putting stuff in to Johnny, some taking stuff out, and others just sitting around beeping. She went to her brother's bed and smiled when she found his eyes open. "Hey kiddo, you had me worried there."

Johnny tried to smile but ended up wincing instead. His skin was a shade of pale pink, so different from the normally tanned one they were used to. He lifted a hand in greeting, catching a nearby sheet on fire.

Reed frowned as Ben leaned forward to put out the fire. Johnny almost never lost control of his powers anymore. He was much sicker then he was letting on.

Ben sat on a stool as Johnny opened his mouth again to say one word. "Doom?"

"He was arrested." Reed said quickly. "Not that that makes any difference."

"I nearly killed him after what he did to you." Ben said, looking at Johnny. "I wanted to, the lousy, no-good―" he continued with muttered curses for about a minute before he calmed down again.

Johnny was losing strength quickly. Susan saw his eyelids droop down until he caught himself and opened them up again. "You're going to be fine Johnny." She said, kissing her brother on the top of his head, making him blanch. She left the room, casting another furtive look at Johnny.

"Yeah, you'll be fine. You only have slight repertory infection which should be fought off by your bodies natural ―" Reed was still talking to himself as he left the room after his wife.

Johnny was nearly asleep now. Ben pushed away from the bed and stood up. He took Johnny's hand gently in his own, rubbing his large hands over the scars that were embedded there for life. Ben watched as Johnny's breathing became slow and even. He let the hand drop, saying, "You did good, Kid."

**Yeah, that's the end. It's over. Fin. So...review.**


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